Thursday, May 27, 2004

Spent the day in the University Library reading an eighteenth century edition of the Annals of Oxford University by Anthony Wood which is mercifully in English. The only complication is the use in printing of the 'long s' which looks a bit like an 'f'. Connoisseurs of double entendres should check out Robert Boyle's the Spring of the Air (about his vacuum pump) to see the word 'suck' spelt with a 'long s'. They got rid of it about 1800 and I have never been able to figure out the logic of its use as they use a normal 's' as well. The 'long s' is one of the things that makes medieval manuscripts hard to read and it just got carried over into printing. The end of the eighteenth century also marks the point that spelling becomes completely modern and I've always wondered if we have Samuel Johnson and his dictionary to thank for that. The further back you go, the worse English spelling becomes but even in 1500 there are very few English words that we don't still such today ('sith' for 'since' is a rare exception). I have been reading an awful lot of sixteenth century English and have been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is.

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Welcome to Quodlibeta

The Latin word Quodlibeta means "whatever you like" and refers to the special occasions at medieval universities when the students (or clerks as they were known) could test their masters by asking any question they fancied. This blog is primarily concerned with religion, science, history and their interface. But like the medieval clerks, we reserve the right to post on anything we want.

I am a historian of a very middling and amateurish sort. Having taken a Masters in Modern History at the University of St Andrews (2004), I completed a law conversion course at Nottingham Law School and embarked upon what has been an exciting career in legal technology. My chief interests are in Twentieth Century History, Colonial America, Historiography and, most recently, the History of Science. I also write a satirical blog at The Diary of Humphrey Clarke. I hope my contributions to Quodlibeta capture something of the pleasure I get from trawling my dusty collection of second hand history books.

Jim S

I have a Ph.D. in Philosophy and Master's degrees in Philosophy and Theology. I'm a generalist, my areas of expertise being epistemology, logic, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and science and religion. I did my philosophical studies in Continental Europe, and currently reside in the Pacific Northwest. I also write the Agent Intellect blog. In my mid-20s I decided to refute Christianity to set my conscience at ease. Two subjects I turned to in particular were science and philosophy. I accidentally argued myself into it.